An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away free essay sample

He has conducted projects for clients in North and South America, West and Eastern Europe and Asia-Pacific including ABN AMRO Bank, Braun, Brita, De Beers, DuPont, Iams Pet Food, ING Bank, the International Student Travel Confederation, Johnson Johnson, Hallmark Cards, Heineken, KPN Telecom, Mexx, Philips, Randstad, SCA and Sony Music, just to mention a few. His current work consists of advising and assisting his clients in their global and local brand analysis. Having lived, worked and travelled across many continents, his exposure to their great diversity has greatly helped to develop his understanding of and sensitivity to different cultural, motivational, economic, social and competitive issues Preamble Sincerely, there have been many branding books of late, they are just ordinary guide for companies, However, for companies like Emzor pharmaceuticals, willing to look into global brand strategy in depth, Sicco van Gelders Global Brand Strategy: Unlocking Brand Potential across Countries, Cultures and Markets is the only choice. We will write a custom essay sample on An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Van Gelder has frequently distinguished himself with his global and cultural perspectives that are intellectually and intelligently analyzed, with no exception to this book, though not to say that this is an academic text. Global Brand Strategy is firmly founded in the real world, thanks to examples that the author has confronted in his experience, upon which the foundation of this great masterpiece is laid. This book is most importantly at home on the practitioners shelf, with its entire final part (Chapters 9-12) devoted to typical brand issues. Review Firstly, this book deals with organizational issues surrounding brand: a useful start! Considering that an organization must deal with its internal vision first in order to be authentic. The opening chapter is perhaps predictable in dealing with the organization, but the author makes it more welcoming by linking overall corporate strategy to the brand and additionally injects issues of brand legacy (birthright, milestone and role) and the global brand organization. He deals properly with notions of brand personality ( a set of human-like attributes associated with a a particular brand) and identity ( a set aspects that convey what a brand stands for; it background, its principles, its purpose and ambitions) as well as the marketing mix before getting into the bulk of the book. The central part of the book is the most fascinating and where the author excels most. It is particularly vital, considering that brand is what links consumer to organization; van Gelder recognizes this by ably and vertically linking strategy with the external analysis. Dealing with conventions first, three influencing factors: category conventions( usually due to perception), needs conventions( usually due to One’s need) and cultural( usually due to cultural difference) conventions were greatly discussed. By tackling these three, the unseen influences behind taking a brand strategy global uncovered. It is only after dispensing with conventions that the brand domain (brand domain consist of what the brand offer, how the consumer learnt about the brand, where the brand can be obtained and which solution the brand offers the consumer) was discussed, thereby taking the position that the brand perception (the total impression that the consumer have of a brand, based on their exposure to the brand) is the starting-point for branding strategies, not the brand expression. This is briefly argued albeit convincingly so: if marketing managers are meant to understand the consumer and make their work market-orientated, then they need to appreciate the context of those consumers. Brand expression and convention are examined alongside issues such as RD, media and distribution so that the findings may be incorporated into a fuller brand strategy. This expression-and-convention structure is followed by the different types of brands when considering their reputation and the idea of brand affinity, or why consumers feel a kinship to a certain brand. Moving further, brand recognition, another logical element of the external analysis, is discussed with reference to a brands awareness and its level of differentiation, blending an element of brand equity; normally a consequence of a branding exercise with one that normally arises early in a brand strategy. At this stage, one might think that the author has failed to bring the external analysis elements back into the cooking pot, for incorporation into the strategy, but Chapter 9 sorts that matter out. Every chapter to this point is brought into a single application of van Gelders model on how to take a brand global. The finishing chapters as earlier mentioned, discusses typical issues in global branding. Global brand harmonization (synchronizing brands across different geographical areas or company divisions) is dealt with in Chapter 10 with more clarity. Determining conventions in the host countries, whether harmonization creates consumer value, how disparate the brand reputation is in each market, and a solution of making use of lead consumers as a prelude to a harmonization effort all familiar to anyone who has had to work with brands in more than one culture are all discussed here. Finally, brand extensions and brand creation are discussed, with eye on global branding, highlighting the additional complexity that one may encounter when extending in more than one country. Brand creation, while admittedly rarer, is bound to accelerate the successful new global brand has to transcend societal differences. From this book it is obvious that emzor is internally well structured, focused, and doing well as most of the strategies offered by the book are already in practice. However, we need to reposition our external strategy, since consumers are influenced by factors such as perception, we may have to do more to improve on the way our brands are perceived, either by packaging or by advertizing. Also, in order to maintain our current lead, we need to break new frontiers in creating new brand by discovering new products that’s that can give us patency. While we are yet to do this, we can also extend our brands (brand extension) by introducing new brands (e. g sterile products). We already have brands with strong dominance in the Nigeria and some West African markets; we simply need to take these brands outside the continent. All these chapters are filled with real-life examples, many of them familiar to readers, making the text easily absorbed. In my opinion this book provides the most convincing and comprehensive strategy for global brand creation and management. No wonder after reading this book, Simon Anholt called it a â€Å"bible for anyone in the business of creating or managing brands†.